Justice and Prejudice. The Jewish Minority before Territorial Courts in 18th century Germany

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Stefan Brakensiek
• Subject Area: Early Modern History
• Term: from 2014 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 263748629

Due to the usus modernus pandectarum and the assumptions of enlightened natural justice, most jurisprudents in the Holy German Empire presumed equality of treatment of Jewish parties going to court. The project aims in scrutinizing in how far the practice of high courts in 18th century German territories was in accordance with this claim, or if it was affected by specific prejudice. In order to keep distinctions between the three Christian denominations in mind, case records and reasons for the judgment stemming from high courts of four different territories will be compared (Kurköln, Jülich-Berg, Lippe, Brandenburg-Ansbach). Furthermore, the project will reconstruct the change of legal practice during the 18th century. It will query whether the debate on toleration of the Jews in the second half of the century caused any positive effect.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants